Nobody's People: Hierarchy as Hope in a Society of Thieves (South Asia in Motion)

What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us into a "caste of thieves" in northern India, Nobody's People depicts hierarchy as a normative idiom through which people imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. Failing to find a place inside hierarchic relations, the book's heroes are "nobody's people": perceived as worthless, disposable and so open to being murdered with no regret or remorse. Following their journey between death and hope, we learn to perceive vertical, non-equal relations as a social good, not only in rural Rajasthan, but also in much of the world—including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Anastasia Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to recognize hierarchy as a major intellectual resource. "What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social creativity and hope? In Nobody's People, Anastasia Piliavsky takes us into the world of thieves, the Kanjars, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Introducing us to wily policemen, quirky aristocrats, and resourceful goddesses, she shows that locally hierarchy is a potent normative idiom through which they imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. A community once patronized secretly by aristocrats and now precariously in the service of farmers and the police, Kanjars try and fail repeatedly to find a way into hierarchic relations rather than out of them. In a world where to be is to belong, they are nobody's people, who can be murdered with no moral restraint or remorse. Following Kanjars on their journey between death and hope, Piliavsky invites readers to see in hierarchy - not inequality - a viable ethical frame instead of an archaic system of subjugation. Doing so, she suggests, will help us understand not only rural Rajasthan, but also much of the world, including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to consider hierarchy as a major intellectual resource"-- Provided by publisher (Cover) (Contents) (Acknowledgments) (Dramatis_Personae) (Note_on_Transliteration) (Prologue) (1_Hierarchy_as_Hope) (2_The_Lords_of_Begun) (3_The_People_Who_Were_Not_There) (4_The_Perils_of_Masterless_People) (5_How_to_Make_and_Eat_a_Goddess_in_Nine_Days) (6_Who_and_Whose) (7_The_New_Lords_of_Begun) (8_Every_Man_a_King) (Notes) (References) (Index) A radical rethinking of hierarchy as a moral idiom through an ethnography of professional thieves in northern India